The Communicative Approach to Foreign Language Teaching. The Teacher's Case.

Dolle, Dora; Willems, Gerard M.

To accomplish successful communicative foreign language teaching, a teacher needs more than a sound command of the language and thorough training in communicative methodology. He or she also needs training in self-presentation, exposure to situations in which the importance of non-verbal behavior is made clear, and discussion of the fundamental role of interactive skills in foreign language teaching. The teacher must learn both verbal and non-verbal skills for interacting with students. One must become aware of one's non-verbal signals (facial expression, posture, gestures, general movement, physical proximity to students, and voice qualities), both to prevent them from confusing or threatening students and to use them in support of essential classroom interaction. The teacher also needs three basic interactive skills: willingness to learn from one's students; empathy; and the ability to react to students' remarks or replies in an accepting manner. These should be part of both preservice and inservice teacher training programs. The incident method, involving the discussion and resolution of specific interaction incidents, may help to enlarge the teacher's capacity for observation and sensitivity to interaction or group processes. (MSE)